HONG KONG: By day, the small commercial kitchen in a Hong Kong industrial building produces snacks. At night, it turns into a secret laboratory assembling a kit for pro-democracy protesters seeking to detox after repeated exposure to tear gas. Volunteers seated around a kitchen island sort and pack multicolored pills into small resealable bags. At…
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump offered a faulty take on the Constitution’s grounds for impeachment Wednesday as he wrapped up a NATO summit marked by his misstatements on several fronts. Among them, he claimed that he pays no attention to the stock market despite plentiful evidence that he treats that indicator as the pulse of his…
LONDON: A missile defense system bought by Turkey from Russia is “in no way compatible” with NATO’s defense, the alliance said after a fractious meeting near London came to an end on Wednesday. Ankara’s purchase of the S-400 system and recent testing on US-made jets has strained relations with Washington and other NATO members. The…
KARACHI: As Pakistan’s second woman athlete to win a gold medal in karate at the South Asian Games in Nepal, Shahida Abbasi knows how to pack a punch. That, however, is half the battle won she says. True glory, she adds, lies in the fact that her town in Balochistan — which until recently was in the news…
LONDON: Jack Merritt died doing the job he loved. After completing a master’s degree in criminology at Cambridge University, he worked as a course coordinator for Learning Together, the department’s prison-based education program. The initiative was designed to help reform prisoners, allowing them to rebuild their lives free from crime. Merritt was killed last Friday…
LOS ANGELES: California Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, indicted on corruption charges, has announced he would plead guilty to avoid a trial on one count of misusing his campaign funds for personal use, opening the door to the election of Palestinian rival Ammar Campa-Najjar. Hunter, who was handed the 50th Congressional District seat in 2008 succeeding…
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was a “victim” of the multi-million dollar 1MDB scandal that saw state coffers drained on his watch, his lawyer said Tuesday, as the ex-premier gave evidence in his own fraud trial. Huge sums were stolen from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, allegedly by the ex-prime minister…
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was a “victim” of the multi-million dollar 1MDB scandal that saw state coffers drained on his watch, his lawyer said Tuesday, as the ex-premier gave evidence in his own fraud trial. Huge sums were stolen from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, allegedly by the ex-prime minister…
SEOUL, South Korea: North Korea on Tuesday repeated its assertions the Trump administration is running out of time to salvage nuclear negotiations, saying it’s entirely up to the United States to choose what “Christmas gift” it gets from the North. The statement attributed to a senior diplomat came as North Korea continues to dial up…
HONG KONG: Several hundred people who work in advertising in Hong Kong say they will strike this week to support the anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. The advertising workers not going to their jobs this week rallied in a public square in the central business district Monday. Some held up signs with protest…
KABUL: An Afghan official says a gunman has opened fire on a vehicle in the capital, Kabul, killing two intelligence officials and wounding three others.Afghan interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi says that police were searching for the gunman who carried out the attack early Monday. Police have sealed off the eastern District 9 area of…
MANILA: The Philippines was braced for powerful Typhoon Kammuri as the storm churned closer, forcing evacuations and threatening plans for the Southeast Asian Games events near the capital Manila.Kammuri is expected to make landfall late Monday or early Tuesday in the nation’s east with heavy rains and wind gusts of up to 185 kilometers per…
SYDNEY: An Australian teacher held captive with an American colleague by the Taliban for more than three years believes US special forces tried and failed six times to free them.Timothy Weeks was released last month in a prisoner swap along with Kevin King, ending an ordeal that began with their abduction in 2016 outside the…
MEXICO CITY: Mexican security forces fought an hour-long gunbattle Saturday with suspected cartel gunmen in Villa Union, a town in Coahuila state about an hour’s drive southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas, leaving at least 14 people dead, officials said.Coahuila state Gov. Miguel Angel Riquelme told local media four of the dead were police officers killed…
HONG KONG: Hundreds of protesters in Hong Kong, including many families with children, marched on Sunday in protest against police use of tear gas as the Asian financial hub geared up for further anti-government demonstrations following a week of calm.Carrying yellow balloons and waving banners that read “No tear gas, save our children,” the protesters…
MADRID: Mass protests, a last-minute venue change and talk of climate tipping points are adding some unplanned drama to this year’s international talks on tackling global warming.Delegates from almost 200 countries had planned to put the finishing touches to the rules governing the 2015 Paris accord, ironing out a few wrinkles left over from last…
London Bridge attacker had been convicted of terrorism offenses but released last year LONDON: The 28-year-old British man who killed two people in a stabbing spree on London Bridge before police shot him dead had previously been convicted of terrorism offenses and was released from prison last year.Sporting a fake suicide vest and wielding knives,…
SAO PAULO: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed on Friday that Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio financed fires being set in the Amazon rainforest, without presenting any evidence, the right-wing leader’s latest broadside in casting blame over forest fires that have generated international concern.Bolsonaro appeared to be commenting on social media postings claiming that the environmental organization…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top court on Thursday granted a six-month extension to army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa’s term of office after the government made assurances over legal issues. The Supreme Court had initially blocked a three-year government extension to Bajwa’s tenure, which was due to expire at midnight on Thursday, citing procedural and legal flaws.…
LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are heading for a comfortable win in next month’s election, according to a detailed new poll, amid reports on Thursday that the rival Labour Party is refocusing its strategy. The YouGov survey published late on Wednesday said if the contest were held now, the Conservatives would snatch 44…
